1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to restoration of a MICROSOFT Exchange Server mail, and more particularly, to restoration of backed up MICROSOFT Exchange server mails without actual restoration of the MICROSOFT Exchange Server database.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic mail has become an invaluable application for most of the enterprises over a past decade. However, initially it was difficult to implement reserve copying (i.e., backup) and restoration of the email-related information. If the system failed, some data was not recoverable, thus causing significant damage to an enterprise. Therefore, it is very important for an enterprise to implement effective approach for reserve copying and recovery of data without producing a significant operational overhead.
A MICROSOFT Exchange Server is a distributed database and an information exchange environment having a functionality of a mail client intended for an internal use (i.e., information exchange among employees of an enterprise). Most of the critical information of the enterprise is stored in the database of the MICROSOFT Exchange Server. In order to protect this information in case of system failure or user error, a regular backup of the MICROSOFT Exchange mail data is needed.
A full back up of the MICROSOFT Exchange server is a costly process. However, a restoration of a single message, of a group of messages, or of a mail box is not conventionally possible. It can only be possible if the database (DB) of the MICROSOFT Exchange Server is backed up at a “brick-level” (i.e., back up of each message one by one). Typically the MICROSOFT Exchange Server DB is backed up at a DB-level, which makes impossible restoration of a single message or of a particular mailbox.
The brick-level backup can take up to several hours, while DB-level backup takes dozens of minutes. However, backup of the entire DB takes up a lot of resources and can be quite costly.
Therefore, a method for fast and efficient restoration of the MICROSOFT Exchange Server mail without the restoration of the entire MICROSOFT Exchange Server DB is desired.